Shock horror – a Heath Secretary with no health related experience has run into job related complications.

On Thursday 18th February 2021, the High Court found that Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, acted unlawfully in failing to publish details of Government contracts within 30 days. Transparency requirements demand government contracts worth more than 10k have to be uploaded and evaluated within a specific time frame. See the full High Court decision here – https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2021/346.html

Just a side note following the link above – it’s peculiar how almost every single British news article doesn’t include the Court decision. Some sentences from the Judge are mentioned, but an actual link to the Court ruling is not. I don’t know why they think this is something the general public wouldn’t want to read, or at least be offered via the actual source.

The Court also found that Matt Hancock “squarely addressed and squarely denied” an alleged deliberate deprioritising of transparency obligations. He also stated during Court proceedings that none of the Claimants even have standing to bring this claim. In other words – how dare they question the mighty one? Just say it with your chest Matt. The Judge also made a point in stating that £207,000 of taxpayers’ money spent fighting the case, might not have been necessary. Gee, what another sound decision. He is just swimming in a pool of sound decisions.

Research shows that the Department for Health and Social Care has spent around £18bn buying PPE from over 8,600 companies, but only £2.8bn worth of contracts had been published within the required timeframe. This is on top of an already suspicious list of companies who have received government contracts, with at least £881 million being awarded to Conservative Party donors. You actually couldn’t write this. The level of extreme corruptness and greed is laid out in front of us all. It’s also worth nothing that almost half of the UK’s top 50 corporations have connections with a sitting MP.

Corrupt Contracts – Here’s just a short list of questionable companies and individuals who have received extremely generous government contracts.

Meller Designs
Donations: £60,000
Contracts: £163.5 million

On the 6th May 2020, Meller Designs, owned by David Meller, received £163.5 million to supply masks and hand sanitiser. David Meller has also donated nearly £60k to Conservative politicians since 2009.

Computacenter
Donations: £110,000
Contracts: £198 million

IT Company, Computacenter, co-founded by Philip Hulme, provided laptops and tablets to students during lockdown so they could learn from home. Philip Hulme and his family are also Conservative party donors. Can you notice a trend?

Uniserve Group
Contracts: £777 million

This company was founded by Iain Liddell, who, you guessed it, held various roles with ‘Prosperity UK’ a pro-Brexit group. Oddly, the company recorded 2019 sales of £243 million and have no prior experience. From a business point of view, you wouldn’t award a company a contract, 3 x more than its previous annual sales, which are in no relation to PPE. Mistakes can happen, but when deceit is as routine and as frequent as it is from this party, we should just call it for what it is; ‘You scratch my back I’ll scratch yours’.

Whilst we are on the subject of how extremely necessary health and medical experience is, considering the job role is the face of public health for an entire nation, cue Matt Hancock. A few days ago, the Health Secretary stated via Twitter;

To be 100% clear and to avoid all confusion, it is not a cervical cancer screening or a smear test; please visit the link to read the actual definition of what this self-sample HPV test is. https://www.jostrust.org.uk/about-us/news-and-blog/blog/what-hpv-self-sampling

Not only is what Matt Hancock said, factually untrue, it is coming from a place of ‘supposed’ expertise, that naturally comes with being a government figure and being Secretary of State-for-something. Cervical cancer is ranked number 8 in the most common cancer found in women, according to World Cancer Research Fund. Especially considering one in three women have missed smear tests over lockdown, accurate information is needed in order to prevent unnecessary deaths and illnesses. I can’t help but think about the medical and health professionals across the country, seeing this and absolutely hitting the roof. Is it too much to ask for the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, to get it right when it comes to Health and Social Care? After all, he only has one job.

It begs the question, should it be a requirement for the Health Secretary to have health experience? Is it illogical for the level of responsibility with the job role, to have no relevant experience? I can’t think of a single high level position, with such huge responsibilities, that does not require relative experience to even be considered for such position. On behalf of a nation, just get this absolute conman out of government. We need clear, genuine, and factual information and guidance.